The Vault
VIC GETZLOFF – ‘DICK (TRICKLE) WAS LIKE A FATHER TO ME’
Posted on: Friday February 4, 2022
This chapter on Victor Getzloff and dozens of others chronicling WIR’s history are covered in this book. This book is available for purchase at this website through the “Books’ tab.
Victor Getzloff and his brother Albert were hitchhiking to the races at the track in Adams Friendship near their rural Bancroft home in central Wisconsin in the late 1950’s.
Just 12 years old at the time, the brothers were picked up by a man who was en route to the track – with a race car tugging behind a pickup truck with a not-so-sturdy-looking tow chain. “Hop in guys,” said the stranger. The Getzloff boys climbed inside the race car that was being towed. They were just happy to get a lift to feed to the races.
Little did Albert know that the man who was picking them up, Richard Trickle, would eventually team up with “Big Vic” as his crew chief years later and form one of the most dominant teams in the history of short track racing in the United States. “Dick was seven years older than us when he first picked us up that day,” recalled Vic Getzloff, now 68. “We basically wound up being on his pit crew sort like a trial-by-fire.”
Trickle would go on to win an incredible 67 feature races in 1972.
Conservative estimates have Trickle winning close to 1,200 short track wins in his storied career. His wins were legendary. Over the years nobody got to know Trickle as well as Getzloff, who served as his crew chief. “Albert and I were the tire dealers for the Central Wisconsin Racing Association (CWRA),” Getzloff said. “He bought a lot of tires from us in the beginning. He’d pick through all of them. He knew around the 22nd week of the year – usually in April – that’s when the best tires were produced. He’d buy a bunch of those McCreary tires.”
Vic Getzloff stands in victory lane with Dick Trickle during an afternoon race at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. (Vercauteren family photo)
When the Getzloff brothers weren’t selling tires they were racing themselves on the CWRA circuit. “I had a race car I wrecked pretty good in ’81 and Dick gave me one of his to race,” said Vic Getzloff. “Dick asked me to go work for him as his crew chief but I had to quit racing myself. So I did.”
The rest as they say, is history. Trickle would go on to win seven Red, White and Blue titles at WIR. That feat has never been matched by any other driver to this day. Getzloff was crew chief for three of those titles in the ‘80s. “WIR was a real good track to us,” said Vic Getzloff. “And to top it off the Red, White and Blue was a good paying deal. To win that was a big deal for the prestige, too.”
One Sunday afternoon at WIR Trickle had a hairy moment. “His steering wheel popped right off on the last lap of the trophy dash,” Getzloff chucked. “The spindle had come off. He gripped the shaft around it and somehow managed to keep the car off the wall. Not many guys could have pulled that off – but Dick did. We loved WIR. We had some great battles with Sauter, Shear, Tom and locally they had JJ Smith. Roger (Van Daalwyk) really took care of us there. We had some great times at Kaukauna.”
The team gave the race cars in their stable colorful names. “We decided to name the cars after the characters from Gunsmoke,” said Getzloff. “We had Miss Kitty, Matt Dillion and Alexis. We named our hauler Ruth. That was the name of Festus’ mule on the show.” For as often as Trickle raced – often more than 100 short track shows a year – his equipment was always looking sharp, even into the dog daze of the season late in the year. “Dick always said when it came to the race car we dressed up like we were going to a ball.”
Over the years Trickle had a reputation for rolling into the track normally last minute. Stories of them unloading number 99 without as much as any warmup laps and breaking the track record at any track were pretty common. “A lot of people said we were doing that on purpose, that we were doing it to avoid tech or whatever but that wasn’t the case,” explained Getzloff. “We had that car in the shop and scaled it, and we wanted that thing ready to go when we unloaded. We were always ready.”
Getzloff earned “Crew Chief of the year” honors in the American Speed Association (ASA) circuit in 1984 and 1985. With two sets of race cars the team utilized a private airplane to jet Trickle and crew across the Midwest. We’d run Michigan on a Friday or Saturday and we’d fly to WIR some Sundays on that plane,” said Getzloff. Getzloff’s first time flying Trickle’s pilot Neil Jacobs had to crash land on WIR’s dragstrip. All involved escaped unhurt.
“One thing about Dick Trickle most people don’t know was that he was great at helping out new drivers,” said Green Bay native Scott Hansen. “When I decided to go racing full time on the asphalt Dick invited me and my crew out to his shop in Wisconsin Rapids. We were all surprised at all of the information he gave us. He provided so many pointers. His attitude about that was “I’d rather have you running well and not be a hazard.”
A little known fact about Trickle was that he possessed amazing upper body strength. “He did some boxing and stuff in high school,” said Getzloff. “And years ago he really had to horse those cars around without any power steering. So his arms were big and he was really, really strong. He didn’t have a lot of motor either in the early years. So he really worked on the chassis a lot. He won with his chassis tuning.”
Moose Peterson was a race car owner who owned a car dealership. “Moose used to always arm wrestle his drivers,” said Getzloff. “Dick beat every one of his guys. He was that strong. I’d never seen him get beat in an arm wrestling match.”
Over the years Trickle earned a reputation as a man who loved to “work hard” and play even harder. “Dick was a funny guy and he loved to have a few laughs,” said Getzloff. “But a lot of that perception he had was blown out of proportion. He liked to have a few beers. But there were a lot of half drank beers around there. We installed a cigarette lighter in the car. Then the legend grew. It was something to talk about for his fans and promoters.”
“Dick helped a lot of drivers out over the years. It was a fun time. He was the best with the fans. He always signed autographs. He would stay lined up for hours. A lot of those other drivers wouldn’t stick around. But Dick always would.”
Among the biggest paydays Getzloff ever helped Trickle get was winning the $50,000 World Crown 300 at Georgia International Speedway in 1983. “Dick got a crown and a cape for that big win,” said Getzloff. “It was the biggest paying race he ever won. There weren’t a lot of people there because the weather was rainy. The promoter took it in the shorts that day but he paid us out in full.”
These days Getzloff is semi-retired. “I do help out Johnny Sauter with his NASCAR truck gig once in awhile and I drive his hauler around for his short track car,” said Getzloff. “I also worked with Tim Sauter for awhile in the ASA championship. I did tires for both of those guys.”
Over the years Getzloff has seen significant changes with short track racing in the Midwest. “You can’t get any cars anymore,” said Getzloff. “The money isn’t there. The fans can’t afford to go. They got high dollar motors and stuff. Getting to and from the race track got a lot more expensive too.”
As for his memories of Trickle?
“I lost my Dad in 1958. So Dick really was like a father figure to me.”